e-Audio, 11:32:55
Narrated by: Imani Parks
Release Date: November 15, 2022
Published by: Disney Hyperion
Read from: December 7-11, 2022
Stand-alone
Source: Netgalley (I received a copy of this book from the Publisher and Netgalley in exchange for a just and honest review. This did nothing to influence my review.)
TW: Dating Abuse, Gaslighting, Emotional Abuse, Mention of Death of a Parent, Mention of Parental Abandonment, Verbal Familial Abuse
For Readers Interested In: Coming of Age Stories, Romance, Realistic Fiction, Contemporary, YAFourteen-year-old Avielle LeBeau is starting her freshman year at Briarcliff Preparatory School for Girls, one of the few remaining Historically Black Boarding Schools. She has dreams of fitting in with kids who look like her, continuing her family legacy and joining the school newspaper — and she desperately wants to catch the eye of a certain sophomore math whiz who attends Preston Academy across the street. But all of these wants become obsolete when Avi discovers a devastating secret about her big sister’s boyfriend.
Avi has two choices: she can keep this secret and pray it doesn’t blow up in their faces, or she can tell the truth, risking her sister’s reputation and possibly destroying the foundation of their relationship.
BRIARCLIFF PREP is a coming-of-age story set in a space where the expectations of gender and race collide, familial responsibilities are tested, and sisterhood may be a saving grace.
*MY THOUGHTS*
I really need to learn how to read the synopsis of books. I thought this was like a romance book or something. And while it was, it was so much more than that. This book is a look at prep schools that no one should ever have to know.
Ok so this was different. There WAS some romance. Avielle and Q’s relationship was so adorable. They had so much in common. And he took such good care of her. Even when she was holding some emotional baggage, he was there to constantly help her. Even when she didn’t want it. I thought adding the romance was a good addition to the book to help make it lighter.
But like I said, it wasn’t ONLY romance like I thought. It was most definitely a coming of age story that featured Avielle. But it was a little weird because the big thing that happened in this book didn’t really happen to her, but to someone else in her family. It was different to see something like that happening from a different perspective than the person it’s happening to. I felt so sorry for her and I felt so sorry that she was being blamed for all the things she was. She was only 15! I wasn’t a fan of how they made her feel. It just felt really gross.
Now the characters I was like ehh about. Like I said I liked Q, but every other guy in this book was so gross and misogynistic. Even her brothers were gross. I HATED the way she was treated by all the men in this book. Everyone except Q and her dad. But even they seemed to have said anything way too late. She deserved better. Like man, she had all these people that were supposed to be taking care of her, but they were more just being overbearing and it was so annoying.
The ending was weird too. It went so fast. I wanted to see more of how her sister was afterward. And I wanted to see more of what happened when he got caught. So much happened all at once. I wasn’t a fan of how fast it went. It just seemed like a whole lot of stuff that would happen after that, that we should know about after having read all the before stuff, we miss. I think this is the first time I’ve ever said this, but this book could have stood to be a little longer. Other than that, I loved the writing style of this. I usually don’t care about prep/boarding schools, but this one hooked me into it. I wanted Avielle to win so much that I found myself rooting for her outside the book.
This was a good book that I was not expecting at all. I say I need to read synopsis more before I start adding them to my TBR, but this one just so happened to be really, really good. And now I see she has another one coming out and I can’t wait! Peppins is going to be an author I keep on watch.
Overall, I give this
